Helping People is the Bottom Line for these For-Profit Companies

Building on the success of its first-ever Social-Impact Investment (SII) Pitch Competition in 2021, the Richard King Mellon Foundation launched another competition in 2022. The 2022 Pitch Competition generated applications from 92 for-profit startups, each presenting a business venture grounded in a social mission that complements the Foundation’s philanthropic strategic plan. With input from a panel of expert national judges, the Foundation chose four winners from those 92 applications – one for each of its four primary program areas. The four companies received a combined $1.35 million investment from the Foundation.

Unlike traditional investors in for-profit startups, the Foundation’s primary motivation in making these social-impact investments is not to generate a financial return. Rather, it is to create social good through the startup’s successful work. If the Foundation also receives a return on its investment, those funds are redeployed in additional philanthropy, generating even more positive impact.

Here are the stories of the four winning companies from the 2022 SII Pitch Competition:

FIRST PLACE: Resilient Lifescience 

Health and Well-Being - $500,000

Brad Holden watched opioids upend the lives of his former classmates and football teammates from Lunenburg, Massachusetts, the small town where he grew up. The crisis hit even closer when a family member died of health complications related to opioid use.

A 2021 headline – U.S. opioid deaths top 75,000 – further made him realize the ever-widening swath of pain and destruction caused by heroin, fentanyl and prescription painkillers such as OxyContin.

That headline jolted him into making a career change. Holden, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering graduate with a Harvard MBA, had been working at a Silicon Valley startup that used conversational AI to automate phone calls for patient-care coordination. That’s how he met Charlie Proctor, a star software engineer. Brad realized that his experience in medical devices could be used to build technology to detect overdoses. They tossed around the idea of creating a wearable device for those in danger of dying from an opioid overdose.

In 2022, the two co-founded Resilient Lifescience on Pittsburgh’s North Side. In just six months, they built a working prototype of a small device, worn discreetly on the abdomen. The device detects and reverses overdoses by automatically injecting naloxone.

“I was happy to make a positive impact on a population that could really use our support,” said Proctor, a Yale University graduate who was a software engineer at Google. He developed software to monitor respiratory rates and oxygen saturation, triggering the naloxone injection when dangerous levels are detected.

Naloxone has proven to be highly effective in reversing overdoses, but a drug user incapacitated by an overdose typically cannot administer it to themselves. About half of opioid overdose deaths, or 40,000 a year, occur because there is no one nearby to administer the life-saving drug. Opioid overdose is the number one killer of people under 50 in the United States.

“Opioids reduce your respiratory rate,” Holden said. “If you’re experiencing an overdose, by the time our sensor detects it, you are likely to be unconscious.”

But a device that automatically injects the life-saving drug into the bloodstream of someone who has just passed out can potentially revive them. It also can prevent other risks of delayed treatment including brain injury and organ damage.

To ward against false positives and unnecessary injections, the device sounds an alarm. If the wearer has not been using drugs, they can override the function.

Holden said the device is voluntary and designed for people who are going through the daunting process of quitting opioids. He said it takes an average of nine years and multiple failed attempts from people’s first interaction with treatment to achieve full recovery. “The cravings can be overwhelming,” he said.

The Foundation’s investment will help Resilient Lifescience to fine-tune their prototype into a device ready to be manufactured and used in clinical trials to gain Food and Drug Administration approval.

Once they clear those regulatory hurdles, the team hopes to begin selling the product to states. Holden conducted market research by reaching out to state agencies, who receive federal funds from settlements with opioid makers, and distribute those funds to community organizations and police programs. The reaction from the states Holden contacted was enthusiastic, with six states showing purchasing interest. The team has started early conversations around pilot programs with West Virginia and Indiana. The other promising market is family members of people suffering from opioid addiction, who want to help and protect their loved one as she or he goes through the difficult process of quitting, with its frequent relapses.

Becoming an entrepreneur is just the latest challenge for Holden, who earned a degree in mechanical and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon before joining the U.S. Marines as an officer. During a tour in Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014, he led 35 Marines on missions to keep roads safe by eliminating improvised explosive devices, known as IEDs.

He hopes his work through Resilient Lifescience will have an even more far-reaching impact on saving lives.

SECOND PLACE: Element Exo, Inc. 

Economic Development - $400,000

Each year, up to 1 million workers in the United States injure their backs, many by lifting and moving heavy objects. In addition to causing significant pain, workplace back injuries also have been linked to opioid addiction and depression, and can lead to income loss that can have spiraling negative impacts for families. Workplace back injuries also can negatively impact an employer’s productivity and economic growth.

Element Exo, a Pittsburgh company formerly known as Maroon Assistive Technologies, has developed a lower-back exoskeleton to help prevent back injuries among people doing manual labor.

Co-founders Tim Pote and Chris Pesek created their patented device in partnership with Lowe’s Innovation Labs to help its warehouse workers avoid back injuries. The device is worn like a harness that straps around the waist and legs to provide postural support for heavy lifting. Making a box feel 35 pounds lighter, the exoskeleton can reduce injuries, improve productivity, and reduce employee turnover.

The Foundation grant will allow the company to scale manufacturing of the exoskeleton in Pittsburgh and hire at least two employees from underserved communities. Element Exo also will invest in research and development to make a less expensive, consumer-facing version of the product.

THIRD PLACE: Sustainable Composites, LLC 

Conservation - $300,000

Each year, some 3.5 billion pounds of leather waste is either incinerated or tossed into landfills. With a focus on reducing global warming, Sustainable Composites has developed a way to upcycle leather waste scrap into material that can be used just like new leather.

The company, which also repurposes old leather products from consumers into new materials and goods, recently hired a new CEO, Don Morrison, a retail veteran with executive experience at American Eagle and Woolrich.

With its Foundation investment, the company plans to hire at least six employees from underserved communities and donate its environmentally friendly leather to local craft workers.

FOURTH PLACE: CodeJoy LLC

Economic Mobility - $150,000

The need for students to learn computer skills never has been greater. Computing occupations are the leading source of new wages in the United States, and employees in all fields are expected to be competent with technology. As of 2022, 33 states have instituted computer-science education requirements -- but there are not enough computer-literate teachers to meet current needs.

Kelsey Derringer, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Matt Chilbert, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, started CodeJoy to address that training gap. Inspired by Mister Rogers, the pair of former educators has developed interactive robots and STEM content that engages a diverse group of students.

CodeJoy offers student computer science and coding services and teacher training programs via Zoom. Demand for its services keeps growing. The Foundation grant will enable CodeJoy to upgrade its facilities and reach out to at least 10,000 students in underserved communities in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The company will offer professional development and robotics hardware to 15 school districts from spring 2023 through the next school year.